Made of willow branches and tule leaves, these were the dwellings of the Acjachemen Indians in the San Juan Capistrano area in California (south Orange County). In front are “gossip rocks,’ where women pounded acorns.
“In Museo Guatelli’s central room, a former granary, the collector’s traditional farming implements have been intricately arranged into expansive, interlinked patterns.”
It’s from Museo Guatelli: https://www.museoguatelli.it/
Spotted this at: https://is.gd/ewKGx
I’m still amazed and amused that our simple handbuilt home got on the CBS Sunday morning show in May. It’s being rerun this Sunday (Aug. 21), 9 AM East Coast time, 6 AM (ulp!) West Coast time.
Link to show: https://is.gd/gCPiw
In the mail this week:
Mr Lloyd Khan
A girlfriend gave me your Shelter book a few years ago and it was instrumental in helping me think that it was OK to build what I wanted to build, and still conform to all the rules I had to face.
My story (short version): After a summer of river rafting I was pretty much homeless and headed for the land I had bought for $4000 a few years earlier. I built a shack (with a lot of help from my parents) in the fall, early winter; out of found materials – except the 8 by 8 hand-hewn Basswood posts i traded for a video about a local Arborist company – and 2 by 6 plywood floor which I bought. All else, foam, tin, windows, were from the garbage or very cheap.
Yesterday I got an email from Cheryl Long, editor of The Mother Earth News. She’d seen my photo of the round barn in Vermont (posting of Aug. 6) and wrote:
“Speaking of round barns, here’s the one my sister owns and is trying to raise money for a new roof. We think it is the largest round barn in the world! https://www.starkeroundbarn.com/ It has this unusual framing system that we don’t know what to call it–big beams just held together by the weight of the building–3 stories high–almost no braces or pegs, no mortise/tenons. Do you know what it’s called? Seems pretty rare.”
In this morning’s mail:
Hello Lloyd, hope everything is fine in your life.
I send you a picture of a construction call: “Garage à gargouilles” (in English Gargoyle’s garage) that I did some 10 years ago (most of my building have a name. Some curves look like to the house of Lloyd House that is in your marvellous book: Builder of Pacific Coast, which I discover only last year.…Claude Drolet from Québec
Press release: “Art Carpenter, self-taught woodworker writes about his process of becoming a designer of innovative and creative furniture. His book, 160 pages with magnificent color photographs, has been over 20 years in the writing.…
‘Name a contradiction, and Art Carpenter lived it. He was a square among hippies; a master craftsman who knew how to cut (or at least round) corners; a modernist with a rustic aesthetic; a much-revered icon who disliked being an object of attention. Even his name seemed to embody the happy union of two things normally kept apart. Though he hated the pun, it fit him perfectly. He was indeed a woodworker with deep aesthetic sense, or put the other way round, a born artist who knew how to get things done.'” -Glenn Adamson, head of graduate studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
To order: Send $55 (includes tax and shipping) payable to Arthur Carpenter III to 120 Mountain Lane, Mill Valley, CA 94941.
I met Bill Castle in Costa Rica about 20 years ago. He and his wife Barb were running a B&B just south of Puerto Limón on the Caribbean. Bill was a real builder, had built bridges before dropping out and creating a village in the woods of downstate New York called Pollywogg Holler. He ended up being one of the 3 featured builders in HomeWork: Handbuilt Shelter.
He’s an extraordinary builder. Chris McvClellan wrote an article for The Mother Earth News last year on his $10,000 house, anf I got reminded of it by Lew on his Shelterpub Facebook page. Article here: https://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Homes/Timber-Frame-Homes.aspx
Christopher Chilcote is a designer/builder in Anderson Valley, Northern California. He uses salvaged lumber when possible. Note way clear story is extension of one side of curved roof. Nice!
Pics of his arched barn at: https://millkat.com/MILLKAT/Portfolio.html
Discovered by Lew Lewandowski
In backyard of The General Store, 1899 Irving Street, San Francisco.
Recycled materials. Cool neighborhood.